Cold
by Kay the Cricketed
Summary: Well, this was short, sweet and yet misleading Taito I wrote one night... ::sweatdrops:: (This is the first sign you should run for your lives! Heh heh...) Anyway, our two boys meet up on a hill and discuss... Matt in an apron. -_-;;


Cold  
  
By Kay  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own them. If I did, the world would be MUCH more fun... ^_^  
  
Author's Notes: Er... misleading Taito! Fluffy and angsty- whew, all in one! I have to give some credit to Nanaki Lioness here- her AIDs Tai n' Matt fanfiction was beautiful, made me cry... and led to this short weird thing. -_-;; My muses were screaming all night after THAT one. (And I am preeetty sure I cried all night, too...) Anyway, I definatly recommend it! Her fic, I mean. It's sad and sweet and I just loved it...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
This perfect love  
This perfect trap of endless dreaming  
They drown me through  
I'm still bringing on your sacred years  
  
This perfect dance  
Where I glide over the things you remember  
Dreaming of a kiss  
Darker than your tears  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
The sky was a dark, harsh plain of gray and black shadows that December morning.  
  
Winter had come quickly without mercy, burning the damp green grasses with frost and water, and flushing the trees until the leaves had crumpled. Their bare branches reached like spider legs to the gloomy, morose sky that spread over the horizen. Quickly, this had become a city of dark and white shades, a winter scene chilled into immortal ice here in the Obedia park.  
  
While most would have urged their children to stay inside, two teenage boys met on the top of a frozen hill. Twin breaths drew out puffs of white mist, one more larger and blunt while the other took sharp, small forms. The former, a burnette bundled in dark forest green and a mismatched red scarf, sported ear muffs over his frozen ears. The latter, a slim blonde rubbing his arms alread covered with dark black coat sleeves, had a face slowly turning faint rose pink.  
  
At half past five in the evening, they met on that hill.  
  
"You're late, Matt."  
  
"Shut up, Tai." The blonde flashed a wide, chilled grin at his best friend. His best friend who was looking decidedly like a brown and green popsicle of strange shape.  
  
Tai Kamiya sighed heavily, dark brown eyes glancing to the sky for a second with a shudder, then back to his friend. Already the cold had begun to take hold of their boots into the ground, and he had to shake them loose for a second, stepping closer. "So, what's up?"  
  
Matt Ishida mirrored his friend's sigh, sharp blue eyes growing darker with boredom. "Nothing. I was cooking dinner, but the oven's broke, so..." The burnette's eyes sparkled.  
  
"Housemaid."  
  
"I'm not a housemaid." The irritated blonde squeezed his thin arms to move heat into them, glaring at Tai with defiance. "I hate it when you do that." Say that, he corrected in his mind. And you don't really hate it all that much, either- that's the sad part.  
  
Tai snorted, eyes slitting at him with just as much defiance in them- and completely ignoring his later remark, retorted savagely, "You wear an apron, Matt!"  
  
"I cook, and you wear aprons when you cook, Tai."  
  
The brown haired boy frowned at him, before allowing his dark eyes to slowly brighten, as a dim lamp would as the fire was turned up. A slow smile elevated his face, gracing it with natural happiness as usual. "I bet you do dishes, too, huh?"  
  
Matt scowled darkly. "Whatever." There was a long pause there, though.   
  
"Uh-huh." Tai managed a smirk for half a second of mirth, before breaking that and going into a full-fledged grin that lit up his dark tanned features. "You wash dishes, too. In an apron?"  
  
"How did we get on this topic?!" The sarcasm was thick there in the boy's voice, not so much as scorn but as exasperated bewilderment that had the blonde's attitude written over it in large black letters.   
  
"You said you were cooking for your Dad when the oven-"  
  
"Blew. Yeah." Graceful fingers brushed at the dark black cloth of his coat, and Matt sighed. "We need to get a new one, but Dad's job isn't doing so great right now... There's some freaky new guy at work that's trying to get his job, he says."  
  
Tai blinked slowly, showing total disregard for the problem with, "Would you consider cooking at my house instead of Mom? No offense to her, but... her food..."  
  
Matt glanced at him, widening his dark, blue jeweled eyes for a moment, and asked in the same exasperated, bewildered tone, "Why would you want me to cook for you? Do you think I'm that crazy?"  
  
"Well, it was worth a try..."  
  
Ignoring his friend's mumbles and pouting, Matt shook his head from side to side, breath quickening with the cold of the air. His cheeks were already numb like the rest of his body, most likely his entire face flushed, he rationalized. "It's cold."  
  
"You only now figured that out?"  
  
Matt glared at him for a moment. Then, "We should go inside or something, before I freeze to death. You may have all that stuff on, but I just have a coat."  
  
Tai made a show of looking puzzled, tilting his head and studying his friend with dark chocolate eyes. His own face was faintly pink, though not the same violent blush as his poor teammates was in the frigid air. After a bit of contemplation, he quickly unwound the wool mismaching scarf from his neck.  
  
Within two confusing miliseconds, he somehow had it wrapped around Matt's neck.  
  
Standing back, he surveyed his handiwork, neck now bare, and grinned. "There!" Realizing he now had no protection from the frostbitten wind, he swiftly tugged his coat up around his ears with an even larger smile. Matt simply stared at him.  
  
"Wh-what was that for?"  
  
"You said you were cold?"  
  
Matt slowly blinked, looking down in surprise and faint embarrassment at the poorly tied scarf. It was wound just fine, but the knot bringing the ends together was oddly done, despite his attempts to poke and prod it into shape.   
  
"It's... thanks, I mean." He stared down at his shoes, face colouring slightly. "I appreciate it."  
  
"Yeah, no problem." Tai waved it off casually, still managing to keep ahold of his collars to keep them around his neck. "I don't like Matt popsicles, anyway. They taste weird."  
  
"Oh, do they?" Matt laughed lightly, unable to stop it even though it scratched his throat in the coldness of winter, brutal. It helped, though, when the burnette was suddenly only a few inches away from his face, breathing softly into him, gazing deep into his eyes.  
  
"Tai-"  
  
"Matt?" Tai murmered in question, more asking for permission he knew he didn't have to have. At a slight, shy nod, the boy eagerly pushed against the barriers, leaned forward-  
  
And kissed the blonde with cold but heated lips.  
  
The air whistled darkly around them, cold and unfeeling as always, and yet they were burning. Burning with fire and warmth and everything hot and good inside. Like love. What they thought they had, but couldn't tell due to youth and inexperience.   
  
After a long minute, the blonde reluctantly parted, blushing hotly. "Tai..."  
  
Tai just grinned, cheeks not just as flushed as his partner, and looked away. "Jus' thought I'd try it..."  
  
"I'm rather glad you did..."  
  
The burnette grinned, and without replying he reached out and adjusted the scarf hanging around the other boy's neck. Tugging it roughly by accident, he winced, telling Matt, "It's not bad, it'll keep you warm at least, right? Even if it isn't your colour or anything..."  
  
Matt fingered the warm scarf gently. He smiled, a soft and sweet one that warmed them both with it's rarity. "It's nice. Did your mom make it or something?"  
  
For the span of three heartbeats, his friend's face went blank, like a far away dream. Tai simply stared, and then with incredilution, told him unsteadily, "You know? I really don't know where I got it. In fact, I don't even remember wearing it out of the house..."  
  
It was starting to rain.  
  
Matt looked confused, rightly so, with his dark eyebrows drawing together in worry. There hadn't been a cloud in the sky. "What? What are you talking about, Tai?"  
  
Tai backed away a few steps, boots silently crunching the snow and leaving footprints in the frozen ground like the tracks of an animal. His face seemed to be fading like mist- vapor between Matt's hands, his fingers, no way to gently tug it back except wish it-  
  
"Tai?"  
  
He was going away, fading in midair, like a dancer on leaves- but he wasn't going to come back this time, was he? He was going to leave- leave-  
  
"Tai?!"  
  
It was pouring hard now. And Matt knew he'd never see his friend again, those eyes wide with innocent humor, that strange gait he walked with. This was the beauty fading away, the summer days were gone, only winter left behind to attack with sharp reminders. Tai wasn't coming back, anymore, because he hated Matt now, more than anything-  
  
"TAI?!"  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
When Matt Ishida came to, all he could feel was stone.  
  
It took a minute of blinking into consciouse, fading in and out as though in a black and white film, for him to register this sensation. Soft flesh against wet, cold granite of some kind. Everything was cold and wet. Somewhere in the distant realms of his mind, he could feel the raindrops running down his neck into his shirt.  
  
'Where am I?'  
  
Matt lifted his head with a painful groan. Ouch. That hurt- the slowly throbbing wound in the back of his head was definatly taking its toll right about now. Wherever he got it. He had something wet, something wool and soft, clutched so tightly in his hand he could barely feel his fingers. It took him even more time of blinking before he realized he was leaning on some upright stone.  
  
A gravestone.  
  
Staring through blurry oceanic eyes, Matt gazed into what had been his nightmare for the past year of his life.  
  
Taichi Kamiya. 1986-2000.  
  
Somewhere in the back of his mind, it was nodding, sad, but accepting- and yet it was as though he'd awaken from some deep sleep in another world. Where this hadn't happened. Where... what was going on again? Hadn't he just been with Tai? Just a second ago? How could he be in this nightmare now?  
  
But no. That had been a dream. The familiar feeling of harsh pain, racking his body, washed through him. Hurt and betrayal. Regrets, most definatly- a disappointment that he hadn't woken up to another dream world, but dark reality. Where he must have fallen asleep when he came by tonight for his daily routine of mourning.   
  
Matt felt it run through him like a shock, as usual- the snapping whip of protest. This was reality, this was what was real, he hated, hated this and the world here...  
  
And the blonde hair, damp from rainfall, hit the granite as he bowed his head to let the hot tears run down.  
  
Still clutching the bright red scarf in his hands.  
  
Still crying and thinking of warm yet chilled lips on his.  
  
Still wondering why his skin was so cold...  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
THE END 


End file.
